My Brother’s Keeper

September 29, 2010

A Friend and I have been having an exchange which may be of interest.

Yesterday, Obama was asked how he came to his Christian faith. His reply,

“I came to my Christian faith later in life, and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead,” Obama said. “Being my brothers’ and sisters’ keeper. Treating others as they would treat me. And I think also understanding that, you know, that Jesus Christ dying for my sins spoke to the humility that we all have to have as human beings.”

Now, of course, any claim of Obama to humility is either out-right lying or tells us the reason we’ve never seen his college transcripts is that he failed Self Knowledge 101.

So, we are left with “my brother’s keeper.” First, Christ never said this. The phrase occurs in the book of Genesis. God’s asking Cain where Abel is. Cain, having earlier dispatched Abel, replies, ‘How am I supposed to know? Am I my brother’s keeper?” Okay, that’s a bit of a paraphrase.

Cain is offering an excuse for not knowing where his brother is. The point of the story is not that Cain should have been taking care of his brother. It’s more to the point that he shouldn’t have killed him and then lied about doing so.

Now, let’s look at the definition of “keeper.” Here are the first two form Dictonary.com:

1. A person who guards or watches, as at a prison or gate.

2. A person who assumes responsibility for another’s behavior: He refused to be his brother’s keeper.

Up until now it hasn’t been necessary for a politician to assure the public, “No, I’m not really a God,” although, personally, I haven’t heard Obama clarify his thinking on the matter.

But if Obama thinks his role is to be our keeper and his admirers think he is all knowing and powerful, then I guess that would explain much of his approach to governing.

Interestingly, I’m not the first to note the dark side of this interpretation of this particular Biblical passage. In fact, it’s been tied to exactly the sort of all-encompassing Liberalism that either must end in bankruptcy or totalitarianism (Yes, I really do believe that.)

But back to the wingnut. In 2008 this guy wrote an article about My Brother’s Keeper being a misguided excuse for the government taking over our lives. The problem with these sorts of conpiracy theorists these days is the more time goes on, the less wingnutty they seem.

Again, who knows who’ll be tracking you if you click on the link below: